Phyllocladus
(from phyllon, a leaf, and klados, a branch; alluding to the phyllodia, which are characteristic). Celery-leaved Pine-tree. SYN. Thalamia. ORD. Coniferae. A small genus (four species) of greenhouse, evergreen shrubs or trees, with mostly sub-verticillate branches, natives of Tasmania, New Zealand, and Borneo. Flowers monaecious (or diaecious ?), the males fasciculate at the apices of the branches, or solitary in the axils; staminal column sessile and small, or stipitate and rather long. True leaves minute, scale-like, alternate or scattered in a somewhat spinal manner, sometimes all abortive; phyllodes flabellate or pinnate, irregularly toothed or lobed. Cones fleshy, sometimes scarcely two lines in diameter, sometimes ovoid-globose, six lines long. The species, all of which have been introduced, succeed in a strong, loamy soil. They may be increased by means of cuttings of the ripened shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in spring. Bottom heat should be withheld until the cuttings commence swelling at the base. P. glauca (glaucous). Male catkins terminal, cylindric, anthers yellow; female catkins at the extremities of the phyllodes, sessile, narrow. Phyllodes fan-wedge-shaped, irregularly lobed, thick, coriaceous, rusty-green above, light shining green beneath. Seeds shining, about the size of a grain of Hemp. Tasmania, 1853. Shrub or small tree. See Fig. 136.
P. hypophylla (under-leaf). Phyllodes narrow, ovate-rhomboid or ovate-oblong, obliquely cuneate at base, scarcely attenuated into a petiole, crenate-lobed; lobes oblong, obtuse, crenulated, glaucous beneath. h. 10ft. to 30ft. Borneo. Tree.
P. rhomboidalis (rhomboidal).* Adventure Bay Pine. l., real ones, or scales, very small and subulate or fine-pointed. Cladodia, or deciduous leaf-like branchlets, cuneate or rhomboidal, obtuse, obtusely toothed or lobed, 3/4in. to 2in. long. New Zealand, 1825. A slender tree, 60ft. in height, or reduced to a shrub on the tops of mountains. SYN. Podocarpus asplenifolius. P. trichomanoides (Trichomanes-like). Phyllodes distichous, with scales (rudimentary leaves) at their base, 1/2in. to 1in. long, obliquely rhomboid, cuneate, or ovate, simple or pinnatifidly lobed; lobes truncate, erose. cones compressed, solitary on the margins of the phyllodes. h. 40ft. New Zealand, 1840. A slender tree.